Putin denies trying to 'reinvent' Soviet Union

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that he is trying to reinvent the Soviet Union, dismissing as "rubbish" accusations by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Mrs Clinton last week called Mr Putin's initiative to unite former Soviet countries into a Eurasian Union and Customs Union "a move to re-Sovietise the region".

While meeting top activists in his presidential campaign on Monday, Mr Putin dismissed such comparisons, saying there were economic rather than political reasons for uniting the former Soviet allies.

"It's very strange to hear when some colleagues abroad say that ... it is a rebirth of Russia's ambitions as the former Soviet Union. What rubbish.

"This is a process which is totally natural.

"We have a common language, to a certain extent a common mentality, a common transport infrastructure, energy infrastructure," he said.

Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin was even more abrasive in his comments, comparing Mrs Clinton's "intervention and prevention of positive processes" of post-Soviet integration to the "clumsy gait of a lame duck", according to Interfax news agency.

Mrs Clinton is due to leave office when Barack Obama begins his second term following his presidential election victory last month.

"Let's make no mistake about it. We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it," Mrs Clinton said last Friday before meeting Russia's foreign minister in Dublin.

Uniting former Soviet countries in the Eurasian Union was first proposed by Mr Putin in a pre-election article last October.

He called the project a "historical breakthrough" that will change the geopolitical configuration of the continent.

Currently, Russia is in a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, which has been proclaimed as a basis for further integration in the region.

Agence France-Presse

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